– Do the workouts in the order prescribed: For the most part, I’ve done the workouts on the days designated in the plan and I have to say I LOVE IT. I love not getting to the end of the week panicked about what workouts I still need to get done. I just find a way to get it in on the day it is prescribed. It helps that every Sunday we get an email from the lovely Another Mother Runner ladies that goes through the week’s workouts, with a little discussion of what is different or particularly important for the week. Today, I have 5 miles on the schedule. It’s nice not to wonder about what kind of workout I’m doing and I definitely appreciate the separation between the hard workouts. Coach Christine Hinton, who designed the plan, is available via the Strava message boards to help if you have to rearrange your workouts in a particular week and has specifically addressed that issue in the newsletter, which is really helpful.

– Do the strength training: I’m not doing as well with this as I’d like, but I am at least getting it in once a week and I’ve noticed a definite difference in my push ups and planks, as well as my coordination with the leg work. My goal for month two is to get better at getting the strength workouts in! It definitely helps when my boys join in. There’s nothing like your 3 year old saying “time for push ups Mama” to get you going. 🙂 This month, they sent out a pilates inspired workout that looks fun and tough. I’ll test it out this week and report back.

– Incorporate yoga/stretching/foam rolling every day: While I’m not doing it every day, I am at least doing some stretching after every run. I need to get more regular with this, like I mentioned in yesterday’s August goals post. One of my goals for August is to do yoga once a week to supplement the mini yoga moves every day. It feels so good and is absolutely worth 5 minutes a day and 30 minutes a week to protect my hard working legs!

– Take the cross training option when I feel like it: I’ve really embraced this, given the higher mileage called for in this plan, and I think that’s protected me from a lot of aches and pains I’d otherwise have by this point (especially with my half-hearted yoga/foam rolling). Most of the days the plan offers a non-running option, I’ve taken it, which means I only actually HAVE to run three days a week with this plan on most weeks (Tuesday 5-7 mile easy run, Thursday hill or speed work and Saturday long run so far). As the plan picks up, there will be more running days but I think taking this route has helped me ease into a relatively high mileage and intense plan (for me at least).

Hiking Montana was a gorgeous but tough workout – yay for cross training!

I was worried about the added mileage in this plan and about the speed and hill work. It turns out, I love the speed work and hill work! Such a quick, tough workout that makes me feel like I really earned that sweat! So far I’ve done well with getting those Tuesday long runs done in one chunk in the morning, although I forgive myself in advance if I have occasionally have to break in two. I mentioned earlier this month how interesting it was to already be at 8 mile long runs on week 3/15 instead of near the end of my previous training plan. I was nervous about that, but now it is a real confidence boost to know that I’m more than capable of that and that my long run pace is very near where I was at the end of my last training cycle (between 11-11:30 minute miles). With almost 3 more months of training and cooler weather in the last month or so of that training, I can’t wait to see how much more those paces improve! In this week’s newsletter, they talked about the plan design intentionally including multiple repeats of higher mileage runs like the long runs because it gives you lots of time to adapt mentally and physiologically to those runs instead of it just being a one time thing. I think it will definitely pay off in terms of mental confidence, knowing when I line up on race morning that I’ve been running 10+ miles as my long run four times before race day!

Overall, I’m loving this plan so far and looking forward to the challenges the next month brings (including a long run on 8/23 with the last 10 minutes as a “strong finish”). I’m going to work on incorporating more strength work and yoga. I’m also going to do a timed mile this month and each month going forward, like I mentioned yesterday, just to have some concrete measurement of my progress. Forward march (or run, as the case may be)!